HomeMy Public PortalAbout19770209 - Minutes - Board of Directors (BOD) AA1 Meeting 77-4
ARE-
MIDPENINSULA REGIONAL PARK DISTRICT
Regular Meeting
Board of Directors
M I N U T E S
February 9 , 1977 745 Distel Drive
Los Altos , CA
I. ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order by President Wendin at 7 :35 P.M.
Members Present: Katherine Duffy, Barbara Green, Nonette Hanko,
George Seager, Edward Shelley and Daniel Wendin.
Member Absent: Harry Turner
Personnel Present: Herbert Grench, Edward Jaynes , Anne Crosley,
Carroll Harrington, Jon Olson, Stanley Norton, Del Woods and
Phyllis Lee.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A. Minutes of January 26 , 1977
D. Wendin referred to page five, paragraph five, line two of the
motion and stated that the word "convenience" should be changed to
"meeting" . Also on line four of the motion the word "or" should
be changed to "on" .
D. Wendin stated the consensus that the minutes of January 26 ,
1977 be approved as amended.
III. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
P. Lee referred to a letter dated January 26, 1977 from the South
San Mateo County League of Women Voters advising the Board that
Geri Albers has been appointed their official observer to the Board.
P. Lee stated that a letter had been received dated January 26, 1977
from Barry Block and Harry Aine of Palo Alto, requesting the Board' s
P
ermission to cut and remove dead wood from the 275 acre former Dahl
property recently acquired by the District. H. Grench advised the
Board that a draft response to this request was attached to the
letter and requested the Board consider the response and approve
or make changes where appropriate. A negative response was being
recommended since it would be contrary to the District' s land use
regulations which were written to protect the natural character of
the land.
B. Minutes of February 9, 1977
D. Wendin referred to page three, paragraph three and asked that
the first sentence be reworded for clarification to reflect that
R. Childress said, "in the event that a small part of the Phillips
and Nellis properties were to be developed, the District would
acquire the remaining Phillips and Nellis properties ,
D. Wendin stated the consensus that the minutes of February 9,
1977 be approved as amended.
Meeting 77-4 Page two
D. Wendin said that the draft response reflected the policies of
the Board as set forth in the District "Regulations for Use of
District Lands" , and he stated the consensus of the Board was that
the letter should be sent as presented.
P. Lee referred to a letter dated February 4 , 1977 from the Santa
Clara County Local Agency Formation Commission asking that the
Board consider the matter of a name change to more accurately re-
flect the purpose of the District. The letter stated that the
request was made because during the detachment hearings over the
last few months, there seemed to be much confusion over the word
"Park" in the District 's title when it is primarily an open space
agency.
D. Wendin asked whether staff felt a response to LAFCO was in order.
H. Grench said staff would draft a letter to LAFCO advising them
that the matter would be given Board consideration at a future
Board meeting.
D. Wendin introduced Richard Childress of Regnart Canyon in
Cupertino, who had written a letter dated February 2, 1977, to the
Board expressing concern over development in the Canyon and the
possible formation of a road assessment district.
Mr. Childress stated that the residents of the Regnart Canyon area
were concerned with the outcome of the establishment of an assess-
ment district in the canyon and in addition, the general character
of the canyon being changed due to the development of the area by
the Nellis 's already in progress. He asked whether or not the
District was legally able to participate in an assessment district
as proposed for that area.
H. Grench replied that the District was not interested in contribut-
ing to an assessment district along Regnart Road, since the District
had no plans for vehicular access along that road, and the road
assessment district would not benefit the MRPD.
S. Norton commented on the legal aspects of such an assessment dis-
trict. He said that formation of this type of district would require
owners of 60% of the- property to be assessed to sign a petition.
An alternate method would be that the City Council could, without
a petition, begin proceedings to form the district. He added that
if the assessment district were formed by either of these methods ,
the MRPD would have no choice but to participate in the district;
however, it would have the same rights as private property owners,
including the right to protest or not sign the petition at the out-
set. He stated that there were many alternatives to the formula
for levying of taxes in the road assessment district. He said
that after initial steps had been taken to form an assessment dis-
trict, there would be a time for protest from property owners.
If there was a protest by property owners owning over half the
property, it could stop the project; however, the council would
still have the option to override the protest by a 4/5 vote.
R. Mark, 725 Cowper, Palo Alto, said he would expect that if the
Meeting 77-4 Page three
District were to become a part of such an assessment district,
the public should then have access along Regnart Road to District
lands.
H. Grench said the improvement of Regnart Road, after formation
of a road assessment district, would probably be contrary to
the basic policy of the MRPD because such improvement would tend
to encourage development and use up still more open space.
In answer to a question from D. Wendin, R. Childress said that
if the District were to acquire the remaining Phillips and Nellis
properties , the Nellis development would still go ahead, but the
kind of impact on the road and improvement of the road would be
much less, possibly to the extent that it would be done privately.
He added thatas stated in his letter to the Board, the residents
of the canyon would like to see the MRPD do something in a timely
manner to save the character of the area.
D. Wendin advised Mr. Childress that the Board would discuss this
matter in the executive session immediately following the Board
meeting.
H. Grench referred the Board to correspondence received from the
residents of the Hassler area in San Carlos urging the Board to
examine possible acquisition of the site for open space. He added
that the staff was responding to these residents advising them
that when the matter is placed on an agenda for Board considera-
tion, they will be notified.
IV. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
H. Grench asked that the Board add an item under New Business with
Action Requested to consider possible scheduling of a Special
Meeting to discuss the Hassler site.
It was the consensus of the Board that the agenda be adopted with
the above addition.
V. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Trout Black, 11924 Rhus Ridge, Los Altos Hills, distributed a
letter to the Board containing his proposal for projects on the
District's Picchetti property. He said he was currently heading
the environmental education program at the Hidden Villa property
and he would like to incorporate some of the activities in the
Hidden Villa program at the District 's Picchetti property. He
added that he had discussed some of these ideas with District
staff. He said the property lends itself to some type of inter-
pretive program, and there is the possibility of funding from
State sources to set up such a program. He mentioned the pos-
sibility of coordinating the program with the parks and
recreation departments in the area.
Meeting 77-4 Page four
D. Wendin informed Mr. Black that the Board had appointed a
subcommittee to draft a policy statement for multi-agency use
of sites, and that his proposal for the Picchetti property would
logically fall into this category. He also asked staff to con-
sider Mr. Black' s proposal, if it might reduce the amount of staff
time necessary to consult several agencies in the use and plan-
ning for the site. He added that it is the normal procedure
for staff to make such use and management recommendations and,
when necessary, present such recommendations to the Board for
consideration.
VI. NEW BUSINESS WITH ACTION REQUESTED
A. Proposed State Legislation
H. Grench introduced his memorandum (M-77-15) dated February 1,
1977, regarding Proposed State Legislation. He explained that
at the January 26, 1977 meeting he reported to the Board that he
had attended a meeting of the general managers of the four re-
gional park districts in California. At that meeting, proposed
State legislation was discussed. Some of the items the districts
would be considering during the next legislative term are as
follows :
(a) Proposition 2, November 1976 - the concern of the
districts involved is the equitable distribution of
funds from the recent parks bond act.
(b) SB 174 - Each year the State allocates funds for parks
and recreation under this bill. This year it is being
reviewed by the State legislature, and the feeling of
the regional park districts is that there is some threat
of local proposals taking priority over regional parks
proposals.
(c) Protective Zoning - East Bay Regional Park District
is attempting to get legislation introduced that would
give zoning powers to the regional park districts for
protection of wilderness areas.
(d) Exchange of Property - Marin County Open Space District
is proposing legislation which would allow an exchange
of property to allow acquisition of in-holdings for
non-vital land of equal value.
(e) Election Law - Monterey Peninsula Regional Park
District is initiating a proposal that the Uniform
District Election Law be referred to in the Public
Resources Code as the law to be followed when an
elections procedure is not included in the Public
Resources Code.
(f) Claims - East Bay Regional Park District wishes to
allow the approval of bills within the confines of
Meeting 77-4 Page five
budget by the Controller without the individual claims
list approval. The Controller would report to the Board
once a month regarding paid claims.
(g) Emergency Vehicle Legislation - The MRPD staff is pro-
posing that vehicles used by regional park district
peace officers be given emergency vehicle privileges.
Other items of interest discussed were trails legislation, prop-
erty tax reform and an emergency loan fund. H. Grench recommended
that the Board direct Legal Counsel to follow up on these and
other legislative matters and report back to them as appropriate.
It was the consensus of the Board that Legal Counsel would follow
up on legislation as recommended.
B. Proposed Amendment to PERS Contract
A. Crosley referred to a report from the General Manager (R-77-6)
dated February 4, 1977 regarding a Proposed Amendment to the
PERS Contract. She said that at its November 14, 1973 meeting
the Board approved a contract between the District and the Public
Employees Retirement System, providing for employee membership in
PERS. At that time, the employer contribution to PERS was 7. 67%
of monthly salaries of District employees. As of July 1, 1976, the
employer contribution rate was increased to 8. 67%. At the request
of District staff an evaluation of the contribution rate has been
made by PERS. According to the evaluation, the District can
"unpool" from the miscellaneous member group it is presently in
by adding a Final Compensation benefit not offered to employees
belonging to the miscellaneous member group. The Final Compensa-
tion benefit would provide for computation of an employees re-
tirement allowance based upon his or her twelve highest paid
consecutive months of employment, rather than the thirty-six
highest paid months as is done for miscellaneous members.
She said that when an agency "unpools",,its employer contribution
rate is recalculated based upon the characteristics of its
employees, rather than those of the numerous agencies lumped in
the miscellaneous group. Since District employees have the
characteristic of being relatively young and having short lengths
of service under PERS, these factors have the effect of reducing
the District' s contribution rate from 8. 67% to 6.155%, while at
the same time adding a benefit for District employees. This
change would result in a current savings to the District of ap-
proximately $6,400 per year.
She further stated that the recommendation to the Board is to
adopt the Resolution of Intention to Approve an Amendment to the
Contract between the Board of Administration of the Public Em-
ployees Retirement System and the Board of Directors of the
Midpeninsula Regional Park District. If approved, staff would
then present additional documents for Board approval at a later
time.
Meeting 77-4 Page six
Motion: N. Hanko moved that the Board of Directors adopt the
Resolution of Intention to Approve an Amendment to the
Contract between the Board of Administration of the
Public Employees Retirement System and the Board of
Directors of the Midpeninsula Regional Park District.
D. Wendin seconded the motion. The motion passed
unanimously.
C. Possible Scheduling of a Special Meeting to Consider Hassler Site
H. Grench advised the Board that the site evaluation of the Hassler
Health Home property is nearly completed. Due to citizen concern
in the San Carlos area and the tight time constraint to make a
decision on the site, he asked the Board whether or not it would
be possible for them to consider a time and place to hold a Special
Meeting for presentation of the report.
D. Wendin asked H. Grench what the anticipated result of such a
meeting would be. H. Grench replied that staff would be prepared
to make a recommendation at that time of Board policy regarding
Hassler. After discussion of possible dates, H. Grench recom-
mended that the Board authorize the President to consult with them
and schedule a Special Meeting as soon as possible. It was the
consensus of the Board that the President could schedule a Special
Meeting to discuss the Hassler Health Home Site.
VII. NEW BUSINESS WITH NO ACTION REQUESTED
A. Goals Workshop Follow-Up
D. Wendin asked the Board and staff to comment on any items dis-
cussed at the MRPD Goals Workshop held on February 5, 1977 .
H. Grench stated that at the Workshop the Board appointed two
subcommittees, one to develop organization use policies and the
other to reconsider the District' s Site Naming Policies. In
addition, J. Melton, Controller, was asked to report to the Board
at a later date on the financial situation of the District.
Robert Mark would, using a computer, project possible trends for
the coming years with regard to funds available for land acquisi-
tion and land management, and use of the District's borrowing
power. Consideration of a name change for the District would be
placed on a future Board meeting agenda. He further stated that
it seemed to be the feeling of the Board at the Workshop that
staff should take initiative in the Action Plan as to changes or
new directions in the various programs.
VIII. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS
A. Draft Master Plan Map
H. Grench told the Board that the revised version of the composite
map for the Master Plan is displayed at this meeting. He added
that the graphics would be sent to the printer soon.
Meeting 77-4 Page seven
B. Citizens Committee to Save Hassler Meeting
G. Seager advised the Board and staff that the People United to
Save Hassler would sponsor a public meeting to discuss the site
on February 10, 1977 , at 8 : 00 in the San Carlos High School
multi-use room.
C. Status of Maurantonio/Gregory Site Acquisition
E. Jaynes reminded the Board that approximately one year ago the
Board authorized the negotiation of approximately 68 acres in
the Regnart Canyon area adjacent to the Fremont Older site. A
portion of that land, about 48 acres, has been acquired. Since
that time, staff has continued to negotiate for the remaining 20
acres and has reached an agreement with the owners of the prop-
erty. The item will be ready for Board consideration at the
February 23, 1977 Board meeting.
IX. CLAIMS
Motion: E. Shelley moved approval of the revised claims (C-77-3)
dated February 9 , 1977. N. Hanko seconded the motion.
The motion passed unanimously.
X. EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Board recessed to Executive Session at 9 :10 to discuss land
negotiations.
XI. ADJOURNMENT
The Board reconvened to adjourn at 11:47 P.M.
Phyllis Lee
Recording Secretary